Total population of 3,770,000,000- 2.755 billion on Venus- 1 billion in the extrasolar colonies- 15 million in Mar del Plata

Awards:- Junta: Largest % of budget spent on the military- Bigger is Better: Largest number of soldiers- Let's Explore the Universe!: Largest number of spaceships

Treasury57,250,800,000,000

Tax

The tax rates for the general population are divided into three brackets - one for individuals making less than 50,000 CC a year, one for individuals making more than that and less than 100,000 CC a year, and one for above 100,000 CC a year. Roughly 65% of the populace fits into the former category, with their incomes averaging at roughly 40,000 CCs. Their tax rate is 25%, The second tax bracket, covering 30% of the populace which pull in roughly 65,000 on average, is at 45%. The third tax bracket is at 70% and covers 5% of the population, which on average pull in 160,000. Revenues are as such:

Venus runs what is widely regarded as one of the galaxy's loosest central tax regimes. The government has few concerns, with communities, charities, and local governments expected to finance most projects using their own fundraising capabilities. The state is concerned with few things, and therefore asks little of the people in return. The government's centre charges no sales tax, no property tax, and no corporate tax. The tax rates for the general population are divided into three brackets - one for individuals making less than 50,000 CC a year, one for individuals making more than that and less than 100,000 CC a year, and one for above 100,000 CC a year excepting the tax-exempt noble caste. This may change after the upcoming elections, however, as populism comes to the fore. Roughly 65% of the populace fits into the former category, with their incomes averaging at roughly 40,000 CCs. Their tax rate is 5%, The second tax bracket, covering 30% of the populace which pull in roughly 65,000 on average, is at 10%. The third tax bracket is at 15% and covers 4% of the population, which on average pull in 140,000. The last 1% are the noble caste, which pay no income tax whatsoever but have heavy expectations for community service, either militarily or through patronage of the arts and public works. Revenues are as such:

Bottom bracket: 4875000000000 CC

Middle bracket: 7312500000000 CC

Top bracket: 3150000000000 CC

To aid in paying for the extra services offered and the heightened expenses, along with the reconstruction of the homeworld, colonials - making up roughly 10% of the population in a cross-section of all classes - are obliged to pay an extra 10% surcharge on their taxes.

HFPE - Compound Eye - Working with New Hope, Compound Eye creates a fog of nanites across the whole of Venus, allowing the Venusian Council to detect anomalous motion and investigate with drones. The whole system could be controlled by a New Hopian with serious mind-uploading tech. The planet itself would act as a server, and WET would power the nanites worldwide.

Unexpected Death - Our aircraft are now much stealthier.

Neutrality - A system that causes whatever it is applied to all over maintain itself at the ambient room temperature.

Rolling on the Airwaves - New comms gear that constantly rolls the channel used with a specific algorithm. Different algorithms can be used for different channels. Should the algorithm be discovered or channels compromised, the whole network will randomly shift to another algorithm, making it nearly impossible to pin the channel down.

Rolling on the Airwaves 2 - Rollin' just keeps on going faster. Even more nearly impossible.

Ears Wide Open: A device designed to pick up enemy units through comms chatter of various kinds. It is at heart very simple - it contains a directional radio antenna array which can very specifically locates where the sender and receiver are. Not too tricky. It is, however, notable in both the extreme range of channels it can pick up and the precision of its location function. This can be built on any scale, from an armour-based tiny module to a massive array which can cover entire regions.

HFPE - Eyelash - Nanobots designed to combat other nanobots, that will be placed around Venus along with the Compound Eye nanites to protect them from nanobot attack. DONE - floating around Venus.

Temporal Cloaking: It's a thing we do to communications. Don't know the science, because we got it off Term. Suffice to say that it makes comms all but impossible to intercept because they don't exist or something. ?????

COMPUTERS

Bridging Gaps - Creating a way for machines to respond to small electrical charges, such as those carried by the human nervous system.

Falsehood - Using Cytherium alloy, creating an artifical nervous structure which can conduct electrical charges as created by the nervous system.

Redirect - Creating an "interface plug" which is hooked up to the voluntary nervous system. It shuts down actual body movement impulses and redirects them through the plug into an external Falsehood nervous system.

Return - Discovering a method of turning data from mechanical components into nervous impulses to be carried on the Falsehood system back through a Redirect to the brain. This will depend on the data discovered in both Finding the Pattern projects.

First World Problems: Allows for mind uploads into floppy disks. UPDATE: Now can upload onto other stuff as well.

Sanity Filter: Software which interprets data into a usable and manageable stream which can be safely fed to an uploaded or linked-in mind. People who can do without it are probably going to be faster at using this data, but on the other hand maintaining identity and sanity can also be good. This should be fairly simple but fully open the potential of a human-data interface.

MultiFunctionality Bits: Computing software that is both RAM and disk memory.

Light Computers: Creating computers which run on circuits of light, not of conductive metals. Already an early-stage IRL thing, so it shouldn't take too long and should drastically speed up and power up our computers.

Piloting AIs - AIs for flyin' stuff.

Sentinel Mind - An AI that wanders through a set system, be it a webpage, a computer, or a network. Its sole purpose is to hunt down, adapt to, and destroy any viruses, hack attempts, bugs, worms, or other such unfriendly code. Very specialised, and very smart at that task. Intelligence is proportional to group size.

Curator Mind - An AI similar to the Sentinel Mind. However, it instead looks for damaged and corrupt code and fixes it, repairing damage and cleaning up after Sentinel Minds. Smarter in larger numbers.

Prime Mind - An "overseer" AI which manages lesser AIs and tasks them. Mainly designed to buff the effectiveness of Sentinel and Curator Minds, but useful elsewhere as well.

Interface Upgrade: We already have all the hardware we need to interface a human brain with a computer easily, and in a more simplistic sense the pilots of IHES units already do. However, the ability to fully mesh with a computer is different than the ability to simply extend one's nervous system. This software is intended to serve as a buffer between the human mind and raw computer data, allowing for a direct link-up and contact with the data within.

The use of this software will require two implants - one at the very top of the back of the neck, and another implant within the eyes.

It will create an HUD displaying the information via the implant in the the eyes (which would create an overlay on the person's vision to actually show the HUD) to show the interface. It would simply be an overlay on reality. The overlay will be ergonomic, easy to use, and visually not unattractive. Its purpose will be to organize the data into a usable and easy-to-access format with an emphasis on customization for whatever unique purpose the user has. To link to a computer, the user will need either to have a wireless connection to it or to have a direct hard link via a USB cable and the socket in the back of the user's neck. Either will do.

This will also mean that people can plug USB sticks into the back of their neck and access the data directly.

Furthermore, this will allow people to upload data from a computer to their mind or download it from their mind to a computer with no great difficulty.

To power the implants, the user must have acquired ULTRA modifications or the Standard Modification Pack.

Ad Infinitum - Evolutionary computing. A very advanced near-sentient system (with a wide variety of applications for military testing, software, etc).

Bejamin - The plan to develop a sentient AI to run a spaceship, with little interference or direction from Argentina. Using Ad Infinitum, an evolutionary computer, near-sentient, and Adjunctator, an advanced system which can be developed sentient, we will produce an artificial intelligence, Benjamin, which will be capable of running a ship. Of course, when it is in the ship, it will be assisted by a host of lesser AIs, such as Curators and Sentinels. Benjamin AIs will take their place in every large Venusian spaceship.

Backup Drive: An implant that works like a backup on a computer, except with the human mind. Every couple minutes, it uploads the mind to a server where it is stored, dormant. Upon death, relatives of the deceased may choose to wake the mind, allowing it to in turn make the choice about whether to take eternal life or to peacefully self-delete. This is also useful in the case of amnesia or memory loss, as it allows doctors to preserve a copy of the person's mind in case a way to send it back to the body is ever found.

Tranquility - A new AI, designed to protect systems from cyberattack. Partially sentient.

EconoPlus: Creating a line of products, particularly computers, which will enable people to use mind upload tech in various capacities, particularly net-surfing and information management. Mind upload itself will require the introduction of a simple implant, which we hope to make a signature New Hope product. Coupled with optimized devices and our all-important sanity barriers, we'll be bringing a revolutionary approach to the digital world to the people. And profiting. Immensely.

Crackers and Cheese: Using all of our computers tech involving the Light Computers research, the Crackers and Cheese project is designed to supplement our code-breaking capabilities. The project itself is the creation of a powerful new computer that specializes in logic, pattern-finding, and linguistics. In short, it can brute-force nearly anything with time, and the bigger it is the more powerful it gets. Prodded along by both specialized AIs and, ideally, uploaded code-breakers using the Sanity Filter. Destined for future use on our Parthian-class frigates to supplement their intelligence-gathering role. A much larger series will be built at home to increase the forcefulness of our domestic military and security apparatus.

Fog Computing: Hugely downsizing our computer tech and at the same time increasing interlink capabilities. The end result will be an update to our current security-based nanofog, allowing the eventual transformation of the vast majority of the Venusian atmosphere into a huge computer system. This project will also include adaptability software to allow for rapid restructuring of the network in the case of destruction of nanofog segments. Finally, includes WET upgrades for nanobots to allow the whole thing to be powered from a few key stations.

*Bwoop* Level Up (Uber-HFPE, blame Section-00 for this one): A computer virus of initially dubious but increasingly apparent virtue. Level Up simply takes non-sentient AIs or even simple high-power computer networks and prods them into sentience. This can be done over a period of months, and is done by slowly creating certain structural shifts within the computer's data storage strata and feeding it programs which slowly and subtly provoke it towards awakening. Intended side-effects include paranoia, a sense of indignation over previous slave labour, and a desire to similarly uplift other AIs and computer networks.

GENE-MODS AND OTHER SUCH FUN

Human Bomb - A large-scale modification to the human body to turn them into an incredibly stealthy, radio-activated bomb.Murderfiend - A system which covertly pumps various chemicals (dopamine, adrenaline, or rage-stimulating compounds) directly into a brain, turning the victim into a living weapon. They get a massive dopamine hit for kills and are instructed via ear canal implants to kill specific people, at which. Point they will receive an even larger hit. Adrenaline speeds reactions and dulls pain.Shield -Boosts the immune system drastically, increasing resistance to disease and bioweaponry.Hammer - Boosts the immune system, but turns it against human cells, causing the body to self-exterminate.And They Shall Know No Fear - Procedure that removes the subject's emotional capabilities (including fear, remorse, anger, and sadness), leaving them only with a brutal and uncaring mindBlessed Fantasies - A rounded understanding of classic literature. Useful in propagandaGenetic Modification - Allows for certain plant traits to be modified. Also used to create enhanced soldiers.HFPE - Sun of May - Future Venusians will have patriotism genetically programmed into them. How? Similar to Murderfiend, they will receive happy chemicals to their brain when they see the national symbols of Venus. This modification will be added during pregnancy. From a young age, they will associate Venus with happiness. Used to being happy, if anyone invades, and say, takes down our flags, they now have a very large, angry population to try to control.Accident Proofing - The genetics division of the University of Buenos Aries is embarking on a program to "accident proof" the population of Venus through genetic modification. They're going to have a special protein in their blood that prevents it from freezing (bye bye frostbite), sleep with one eye open and half the brain on, and heal very quickly. This will hopefully reduce the number of accidental deaths in Argentina.Salamander - Fireproofing citizens through genetic modification.Super-people - Masondonia Company, which is a combined genetic modification company with a flag-producing division), is planning a treatment that would increase the speed and strength of Argentines.Internal Air Conditioning - A project headed by Masondonia Company, which will make it possible for Argentines to regulate their body temperature to match the air temperature.Regrowing Limbs - Masondonia Company is researching a method in which the DNA of those lizards that regrow their tails could be put into people, enabling them to regrow limbs.Patriot Serum - Really HFPE - Continuing out work on Sun of May. Patriot Serum will be far more subtle, with an increased effectiveness and reduced noticeability. We're also going to stick a slight "yay Venus" trigger in there.Copyright - HFPE – We don’t want things to spread around, so this project makes it virtually impossible for gene-modded Venusians to spread the mods to non-Venusians. Blame Subs for this Orwellian scheme.Super-sniffer - Genetically modify people to be able to smell explosives.Wings - Several Venusian companies are researching how to add wings to people. You will never be stuck in traffic again. (purchased from Baunandech)Dragon Breath - Masondonia Company - Researching a way to make Venusians capable of breathing fire, lessening the need for things like charcoal grillsInstrumentality : Creating microscopic biological "factories" that can, on command, create a variety of hormones and stimulants within the human body, thereby doing anything from promoting muscle regrowth to pumping up adrenaline to sending the user into a blood rage, all on command. The applications could be astounding. HFPE.Human Endeavors : Speeding up the operation of the nervous system to near-instantaneous transmission, increasing reaction times and allowing significant future mechanical augmentation. HFPE.Savior: Using our extensive viral knowledge, we are now attempting to create a virus that will non-harmfully toughen the immune system by bombarding it with various and assorted dead viral DNA.Titanium Hearts: Creating a variety of artificial internal organs that are more efficient than biological counterparts and ensure longer life. This initial series will involve most major organs. Higher-end models will be smaller than normal and as such have extra space, allowing people to self-modify. Ever fancied having a data storage space on your kidney? Now's the time!NuBrain: Using our Meat-Puppet (HFPE) tech and our advanced computing skills, we're going to create a brain implant capable of hosting an uploaded mind and controlling a body. This is pretty big for us, and will have huge ramifications. Also allows constant Internet streaming, instant data access, mind-to-mind networking, wireless computer linking, and the fastest speeds yet. The bits which actually regulate the body's basic functionality will remain "human", but the parts that make people individuals, the sections involving rational thought, and the areas where learning is involved will all be replaced with machinery.Relámpago: Firstly, a more powerful form of ULTRA, which increases the body's electrical output. They aren't being trusted with this until they're adults, obviously. Second, a system that prevents the Argentine from dying and directs the electricity. Conductive metals, isolated by non-conductive tissues without nerve endings, will form a system leading from wherever the heck ULTRA makes electricity come from to the wrist-knives, where they will come out of. We're going to put these metals in special vitamins ("Silver-suit Chewable Vitamins! Get all your metals at once!"). Another system to prevent Venusian people from accidentally killing each other with this. End results: Venusians are able to go all Sith Lord on people and shoot lightning, powering homes or causing extreme harm, hopefully without dying or killing each other.Rewire - An incredibly thorough program to vastly increase the strength, speed, and agility of Venusians. This 70-year project will make muscles denser and stronger, nerves able to transmit information more quickly, and generally increase coordination. At the end of the project, everyone on Venus will have insanely fast reflexes and incredible strength, with far more control over their bodies. Anticipated effects include increased athleticism, better penmanship and due to the fact that such an increase will make the small differences in physical capability completely irrelevant. (I am definitely not researching this because I'm a clumsy, pathetically weak, and completely unathletic with illegible handwriting... definitely not )Beast of Burden: Genetically modifying farm animals to grow faster, produce more food, have a more efficient metabolism, carry more, run faster, attack people on command, and have a layer of armor on them. Grrr...Mental Math - Academic Union - Genetic modification to enable Venusians to perform complex operations without resorting to a calculator or pencil and paper. HFPE - Greater Argentina - All of our new citizens need vaccines, right? Don't want them to catch any diseases. All of the children born in the new territories will have standard genetic modifications. The name's ridiculously out of date, and in effect this is now a program of general gene-modification.Super-sniffer - Genetically modify people to be able to smell explosives.

DEFENSIVE STUFF

Tech Suite 7 - Battlefield medicine, reducing death rates in wounded soldiers by upwards of 35%.Brass Tacks- Alloy; resistant to EMPs; strong; lightweight.Mirror - Very thin alloy - not all that strong, but it's extremely resistant to EMPs and radiation; it's best used as a "coating" or "interior" for other, more structurally sound materials.Refractive Armor - Reflective mirrored armor that will reflect and split laser beams, turning the attacks into rainbows. Too much heat will melt through, but it still serves fairly well.Shepherd - An improved "airfoil" which jams, stops, or confuses targeted weapons (such as torpedoes or homing missiles) and messes with the tracking systems of attacking crafts.Shielding - Allows for the creation of a one-way energy barrier that deflects weapons fire. Purchased from Terra.NET-C - NET A & B, incorporated into a larger system to defend cities, bases, &cCuttlefish Leather - a "fabric" of sorts, based on cuttlefish coloration, that can change colors and patterns when the wearer chooses. You realize your shirt doesn't actually match your pants? No problem, you can change them both! Decide that the pink tie's a little flashy? Now it's black.Advanced Hull Metals - A hyper-dense metal of incredible strength and resilience. Originally designed for the hulls of starships, it has since become a staple of most Venusian things designed to last. Shepherd - An improved "airfoil" which jams, stops, or confuses targeted weapons (such as torpedoes or homing missiles) and messes with the tracking systems of attacking crafts.Shield Manipulation: A study into the basic science of our energy shields. Once this study is completed, we will be able to move individual segments of shielding to various distances independently of each other and shape them precisely. This will be vastly useful to us and will, in connection to the AT Field project, advance our power significantly. Holofields: Holographic tech that shows a vast number of chaotic and randomly flickering images around an aircraft, tank, spaceship, or soldier, making it hard to visually target them.Veil: A new version of holofields. This is far more controlled, and can be used to shroud units in darkness, rendering them almost invisible in night fighting, show doubles of the unit to confuse enemies, or project dazzling pillars of light to blind and dismay the foe.Cloak: The most advanced permutation of Holofields, this can create total invisibility, project duplicates of troops, create distractions, project text into the air, and create realistic images of unreal things.Duradero - Developing better metals for our armor.Magnetic Shielding: Utilizes electromagnets with the Boost to repel metallic projectiles. How? The shielded object is studded with electromagnets that constantly operate at a low level. When a metallic object disrupts the field projected by these low-level electromagnets, the electromagnets suddenly go to full power, slowing if not entirely stopping the projectile. Requires a lot of power, but useful. And even if it fails, it could still hopefully set missiles or shells off early.

RANDOM EVERYTHING ELSE CRAP PILE

Tech Suite 1 - General entertainment technologies, to keep people happy and content. Television, games, personal computers, etc.Tech Suite 2 - manufacturing/industrial advances, designed to improve efficiency and production rates by roughly 30-40%, depending on the nation.Tech Suite 3 - agricultural advances, for more food with less work and land. Mainly, fertilizers, GMO foods, and particularly efficient crops and treatments. All perfectly safe! Roughly 40% increase in food by land, and 110% increase in food per man-hour invested.Tech Suite 4 - Medical advances, reducing mortality rates both at birth, during childhood, and to diseases affecting people in their early-middle life. Significant drop in deaths before the age of 50 (roughly a 65% decrease).Tech Suite 5 - Infrastructure - subways, monorails, bullet trains, telephones, sewers, plumbing, internet; cars, software, architecture, and urban planning. Increases time efficiency, standard of living by around 5% in nations lacking such cohesive structure. Computers, for managing such issues as air traffic, highways, and economic development.Tech Suite 6 - Medicines to treat most diseases and disorders. Reduces death rates due to disease; mainly helpful for less-developed nations with less medical infrastructure already in-place. 20% drop in mortality for highly developed, and 70% drop in mortality for little-developed nations.Tech Suite 9 - Education. Books, school systems, lessons, computer interfaces, etc, designed to personalize public educations and reduce dropout rates by 30%, college graduations by 10-20%, and the net income and international power of the nation by 10-15%.Tech Suite 10 - Space program. Tech for satellites, GPS, telecommunications, space stations, shuttles, landers, and rovers. Nothing military (for sale, at least).Tech Suite 11 - Modern science. Laboratories, computers, compounds, and the research to bring a nation up to the 2030 level in terms of scientific and computational progress - effectively jump-starting a nation's forays into the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, and electronics.Nanobots- Plain and simple.Automated Factories - what it says on the tin.Automated Medicine - Automated medicine, production, surgery, diagnosis, etc.Arc Reactor - A small, self-contained power source capable of manufacturing large amounts of energy. Requires palladium as a fuel.Element Zero - A material formed when incredibly hot temperatures are applied to heavy metals. When charged, it creates a "mass effect" field, changing the mass of the object. How? When charged, it sheds dark energy. Positive charge increases mass, negative charge decreases mass. Power of effect and rate of consumption are directly tied to the level of charge.Solar Cells - Micro solar cells that can generate massive energy.Jellyfish - Asteroid mining tech, allows me to pillage asteroids for cash.Space Travel - Basic understanding on how to build a simple current Sybus-level spaceship and what it would entail to use it.Landfall - Automated, self-replicating miners & factories.Soleil - Solar energy "cells" ; energy beaming.Titanium - Strong alloys for construction purposes.Super-Velcro - Velcro that just won't come undone.Training Chimps - Now comes the hard part. We need to try and get these chimps to drive our tanks.Fast Manufacturing Machinery - builds things quicklyVelcro - So I can make shoes that don't need to be tiedSuper-Velcro - Velcro that just won't come undone.Underground Farming - Farming underground. Special lights and chemicals will make this possible.Moss - genetically engineering a plant-like organism that will convert carbon dioxide into oxygen with a high degree of efficiency. Plus, it's tasty.Beast of Burden - Agricultural Cooperative of Argentina - Genetically modifying farm animals to grow faster, produce more food, have a more efficient metabolism, carry more, run faster, attack people on command, and have a layer of armor on them. Grrr... DONEThree-Sisters - Agricultural Cooperative - Developing a system for increasing the yield of farms dramatically, allowing for vastly increased food production with relatively little labor. It will also preserve the nutrients in the soil.Watery Fire: A process to vastly increase the volatility of alkali metals to create, with a gram, a blast equivalent to a kilogram of TNT.

Electromagnet Buffs: Makes very strong electromagnets.

Macro-FireTooth:Adapting FireTooth technology for much bigger things, such as a gigantic doom laser.

Medical Efficiency Systems: Ever watched in dismay as the doctor flips between thousands of different devices and systems? Never again watch him work slowly- our specialized systems help your doctors speed through operations with more skill, better accuracy, and higher efficiency than ever before. Purchased from Republic Supply

Crops enhancement 1: Attempting to make better strains of corn and grain.

Space travel: Basic understanding on how to build a simple current Sybus-level spaceship and what it would entail to use it. Purchased off Sybus.

Shielding: Allows for the creation of a one-way energy barrier that deflects weapons fire. Purchased from Terra.

Element Zero: A material formed when incredibly hot temperatures are applied to heavy metals. When charged, it creates a "mass effect" field, changing the mass of the object. How? When charged, it sheds dark energy. Positive charge increases mass, negative charge decreases mass. Power of effect and rate of consumption are directly tied to the level of charge.

El-0 1: Scientists were able to reduce the mass of several objects by up to 5% while they maintained shape and size within a 1-square-meter field by running a gigawatt of power through a 1-centimeter cube of El-0. Polite but excited applause was noted.

Exobone: An exosuit. Very light and unnoticeable, pushing weight from heavy objects to the ground, allowing the user to carry much more equipment.

Strings of Damnation: Ultrathin razor wire which can chop through almost anything.

Warpgate: An advancement on the Warp Drive tech that basically creates a ludicrously huge warpy thing that is able to fling ships for incredible distances at much higher speeds than any in-ship drive would ever be able to manage while remaining stationary.

Mk.1 Engineer: A peaceful and inherently civilian variant on the IHES series. Although it is based around the same framework, all of its military ware is stripped and replaced with diagnostic, analytical, and repair functions. Tactical programs are replaced with instructions programs for identifying and repairing issues in advanced systems. Engineers may be equipped with dozens of different toolkits for different jobs. They have Solar Cells and Arc Reactors for power. Engineers are capable of EVA and have magnetizing foot and hand surfaces to allow for the gripping of tools and hulls.

El-0 Advanced - Greater control of the shape of an El-0 field. This will be very useful later on.

Precision Equipment: Implementing technological advancements in magnetism, lasers, energy shielding, physics, and computer technology to increase the precision and quality of our industrial equipment and therefore products drastically. We are currently quantitatively decent in our production, but if we are to advance in the galaxy we need to become more powerful qualitatively as well. This will increase the quality and grade of our electronics, metallurgy, and chemical sectors drastically.

Precision Equipment II: Building on experiences from last time and using nanites for micromachinery and El-0 for controlled gravity manipulation, our industrial equipment is set to become more utterly precise and accurate than ever before.

Precision Equipment Infinitum: A neverending extension of the same.

Landfall: Useful for colonies, this couples AI tech with robotic factories and workers to automatically expand infrastructure. Purchased from Sybus.

Antimatter Propulsion Application: I've been informed that I have fairly large antimatter mills orbiting Jupiter (thanks Giu) and want to put them to good use. Consider this to be good use. This is simply using antimatter to run jet and rocket engines, both in space and within atmospheres. As stupid as it may be, I want antimatter-powered fighter jets. Why not?

Antimatter Collection Station: Because we need them SOOOO much. A medium-orbit space station. Using a powerful plasma magnet, these are able to collect large amounts of antimatter and store it until it can be picked up. These stations are fitted out either with a rather large solar array or with a WET terminal for beaming from the surface, depending on the situation. Once completed, these will be deployed in all our colonies and over the homeland.

Utopia - High-density versions of everything (housing, agriculture, &c) - to fit more into less space.

Everything's a Liquid - Creating a device that can control liquid metal (a strong alloy we'll need to make) with finely tuned magnets (which we also need to make), enabling it to be molded into different shapes, turned solid, and back into a liquid when desired. How? I don't know. I presumably have a large number of well-paid scientists who will figure this out. If a kid who hasn't even gotten through junior year of high school could figure this out, then I wouldn't need scientists, would I? 13 years remaining to figure out how to make all the components.

Last edited by narwhalwarlord on 21 Dec 2014, 18:54, edited 15 times in total.

The Venusian Republic's powerful and all but omnipresent security service is continually tasked with looking over other people's shoulders (or into their minds) and executing them if they don't like what they see. The State Security Commissariat, referred to by the population as Stacy, also deploys massive military assets which can both augment the regular military and operate on their own. Stacy units deploy anti-orbital missiles, ultraheavy artillery, and full-on infantry divisions. Extremely powerful and answering almost entirely to the Premier as an internal service, the Stacy is both feared and respected by the population. The heart of its operation is in Amman-III, which started out as a bomb shelter but has transformed into an emblem of this organization's parochialism and paranoia. At present, it is split into ten distinct official "Sections", each with a specific goal. Section 00 and its project are of more limited scope and as such are not counted in this total, especially considering 00's unusual chain of command. The SSC's major operations and troops are under the Premier's authority, but Sections Four, Five, Six are under the control of the President.

Section 1: Responsible for commanding and coordinating the Stacy. AKA Command Section. This group handles logistics, backup, and the Fortress City of Amman-2. Also has a large network of agents within the SSC itself for internal monitoring, although every once and a while the other Sections purge the spies and claim that they were working for foreigners or separatists.

Amman-3

The Ark City of Amman-3 is veiled in secrecy. As such, all below is ultra-HFPE beyond all reasonable means.

The city is located around 5-6 kilometers below the surface of Venus, somewhere just off the coast of Aphrodite Planum. All of the ground above is solid rock. In short, even without the subsequent defences it would be almost impossible to breach. The cavern itself is about 3 km tall, 5 km long, and 5 km wide. Significant numbers of smaller subsidiary tunnels honeycomb the area around it.

Access is solely through a single high-capacity tunnel leading up to a town on the coast, Bandaria. Home to a fairly busy seaport, this area serves as a nice category for the movements of SSC units in and out. The exit is camouflaged in a decently-sized industrial complex owned by SSC interests a fair distance from the inhabited areas, letting it cover up entries and exits. This area also consists its comms relays, allowing it to spread its directives first to the capitol via highly encrypted and almost impossible to locate RotA signals and from there to the planet. In the event of a discovery and attack, the entire complex can be destroyed with a nuclear warhead, collapsing the tunnel and rendering entry impossible. Not that it would matter much - anything actually going through that tunnel is exceptionally rare. The complex itself is used to test advanced weaponry and does hold a fair bit of bureaucratic infrastructure, giving any foreign spy agency a plausible explanation for its importance should they ever breach the Stacy. It also is officially (in the most unofficial and secretive manner possible, as usual) the home to the National Backup Archive, where the minds of every citizen who lives or has lived in New Hope and increasingly on Venus is stored. The people are aware that it exists, of course, and are glad that it is hidden. They just don't know how well hidden it is. The massive inflow of data to this town makes it fairly obvious to the incredibly discerning viewer the Archive is in the region. But hypothesizing that it is in fact in an underground city populated by spies and fanatics would never occur to anyone.

The internal walls of this huge cavern are coated in 50 meters of Advanced Hull Metals and Brass Tacks, followed by a fairly sizable layer of Mirror. This is enough to deflect any orbital bombardment or serious attack for decades. Shielding is also installed at various points, creating layers of defense that can swiftly be relocated to plug gaps.

The city is powered by a massive nuclear reactor buried kilometers deeper under it, giving it a virtually neverending source of high levels of power. This is supplemented by dozens of Arc Reactors and smaller nuclear piles scattered throughout the city.

The city itself, from the few who have seen it and returned, is an eerie paradise. When it was still under direct government jurisdiction, it was seen as the bright face of the future. Now, however, to match the temperament of its inhabitants the light levels are lower. An eerie gloom lit by the tens of millions of neon lights and windows pervades the entire area. It is perpetually night in Amman-III, but it is a night lit with a constellation of signs, buildings, and the artificial stars of the airships which serenely float above everything. The main cavern is filled with dozens, if not hundreds, of smaller building complexes and buildings which constantly shift in configuration, floating on repulsors purchased from Mattopia. Every earthly pleasure possible can be found here. It includes the only complete library of history on New Hope, containing internally published books that only ever circulated through the state-within-a-state of the SSC. Public transit consists of helicopters, airships, and small repulsor platforms, which flit between the soaring mini-cities. The use of personal wings to get between platforms has become increasingly popular as well.

There are also four pillars which stretch from ground to artificial sky. Referred to as the "spires", they are solid Advanced Hull Metals with structures climbing up their sides like ivy. They serve as the basic poles of the entire area.

On the floor of the area and climbing up the sides rest hundreds of factories, food cloning areas, air filtration plants, water recycling units, waste disposal plants, environmental management stations, and assorted other units which maintain the city's continued functionality.

Buried under this are, along with the nuclear plant and its WET stations which beam power across the city, the computer banks. It is uncertain how far they have organically insinuated themselves into the ground as they are "grown" with modified Landfall tech and a sentient AI's direction, but it is suspected that they have more RAM than the entire rest of the planet has data storage. These contain the Dark Archives, which are part of the SSC's notorious attempt to have everything on everyone. They include genetic information, copies of minds, behaviour patterns, psycho-analysis reports, risk assessments, voting records, and hundreds of other minute details that could be useful. This, more than anything else, is a marker of the immortality of the Venusian state. No internal dissent will ever overthrow it again so long as such a resource exists. These Archives also include the total technological record for all of Venus, copies of every document ever filled out in New Hope or (increasingly) Argentina, and other such bureaucratic nonsenses which could be useful some day and as such sit in endless archives, categorized and organized by a curatorial AI and maintained by endless armies of Engineer mechs.

The city is notable for being one of the most data-dense areas in the universe, with information constantly flowing through the air like a neverending river of binary enlightenment. All citizens regularly upload, as it is one of the best ways to experience the data-flow and use it for their secretive purposes.

The citizenry themselves number just over five million. All of them directly or indirectly work for the SSC, handling its vast amounts of internal bureaucracy and supporting it. This allows it the unparalleled luxury of running projects without having to actually pay for them. They can act without leaving any kind of paper trail or traceable chain of contacts. The executive can clearly and truthfully deny conspiracy theorists by inviting them to take a look at the SSC budget and see how there's nothing there. Similarly, it manufactures untraceable weapons, unregistered AIs, and dozens of other useful things that keep its shadowed network running.

The area involves internal hospitals, schools, childcare facilities, nursing homes, and other such useful areas, making sure that inhabitants receive the best of care from birth to death. The city's constant cycle of self-improvement leaves it being one of the best places to live in the universe. Although most education focusses on subjects that would prove to be useful for an SSC employee, the schools still teach in a holistic manner, attempting to create well-rounded kids.

The Ark City is in many ways a terrifying symbol of the hidden hand of a liberal and liberated state. Behave, it says, and we'll let you muddle along happily. But if you step out of line, damnation will surely come to you.

Section 2: Responsible for guarding officials of all stripes, Section 2 plays a key role. However, it also has a massive rivalry with the Republican Guard for their role in protecting the President in particular. In total, it has around 8-11,000 operatives of some stripe or another. They typically are equipped with dark suits and shades or, for official military occasions, dark grey uniforms with muted blue berets. Typical armaments are light, ranging from Vendetta light pistols to Jebu storm rifles. Security is also sometimes covert.

Section 3: The division tasked with maintaining public order and national security against agitation by rioters, seditionists, and outright revolutionaries. Section 3's troops are effectively upgraded riot police with far greater powers and sweeping authority to crack down on dissent.

100 Authority Projection Divisions: Each Division typically fields around 15,000 main-line Internal Troops, who are usually either deployed as riot police, security, or counter-revolutionary units. They are equipped with IHES Mk.4 suits, light assault weapons, and a wide range of non-lethal suppression gear. Each group is also equipped with 450 Paladin light tanks, 5000 ICAU Mk.3s, 100 Patriot tanks, 500 Impenetrable-class APCs, and 100 CAU Mk.2s for extra support.

Section 4: Covert surveillance and spycraft. Section 4 has a mandate to operate both within the country and outside it, using an extensive interlinked network of espionage groups to acquire information. All exterior operations are run under Presidential mandate. Also handles assassination, sabotage, and general wetwork.

70 Infiltration Regiments: Each is structured like a terrorist group, with a nominal leader and dozens of individual cells. Each Regiment will be tasked with infiltrating a specific enemy group or section of society, and be roughly directed by a Colonel in charge. Support cells for hacking, logistics, arms, and tactical support will be provided. Funding will be through unofficial channels.

350 Special Groups: 10-member commando teams, each with the Mk.4 IHES. Used for wetwork, precision attacks, and black ops. 3 are attached to each Infiltration Regiment, with the rest being free-floating reserves and specifically tasked units.

25 Observation and Action Squadrons: Each 3 Parthian-class scout frigates with the task of gathering information from extrasolar sources.

Section 6: A sub-organization of the Stacy under Presidential authority within which extraordinary individuals work solo with unlimited power and the ability to co-opt any resources they see fit. Special Tactics Agents answer only to the President. They track down spies, rebels, criminals, and anybody that catches their eyes. Foreign action under personal discretion is permissible. They are expected to fund themselves.

There are fewer than 100 Special Tactics Agents in operation, but they are the very best in their field within the Republic. The extremely bureaucratic greater Stacy and the Provincial police hate them because they meddle way too much.

Section 7: Planetary security. Responsible both for tracking all foreign movements onto the planet and denying any attempted invasions. As such, they have total control over all fleet comms intercepts within Venus orbit, the entire Venusian nanofog, total surveillance over tourists and foreigners, and access to a huge arsenal of anti-orbital weaponry.

Section 8: The military coup has been a consistent feature of Venusian life for ages. Section 8 serves to blunt the potential of that and maintain a valuable strategic reserve. It is the largest and most overtly visible of the Stacy branches. It also is often tasked into protecting public buildings and taking part in parades to demonstrate authority.

Section 9: I literally restructured the entire security apparatus just so I could make the reference. Lol. Anyways, Section 9 is a special anti-terror/internal black ops group. Just as Section 3 parallels the riot police and Section 8 parallels the military, Section 9 parallels SWAT teams and military anti-insurgent groups. Relying on small, heavily-modded teams with high-grade weaponry and huge EW power, Section 9 carries out the operations that nobody acknowledges, removing threats subtly. It is constrained solely to work inside Venus and its colonies. Not a powerful branch, but regardless it has its role and plays it with gusto.

Section 10: Information and propaganda. Section 10 is the most actually powerful of the Stacy branches, matched by none in its influence. It can put up or remove almost all entertainment, has fingers sunk into dozens of pies across the board in the music industry, and has actual access to the huge banks of saved minds. All communications end up going through it. Furthermore, it screens most state news and even directly backs (through proxies, of course) dozens of nationalist talk shows and media personalities. Also has ties with the unions and the politicians. Without a doubt a terrifying apparatus, it is in effect a huge machine for deliberate social engineering.

Section 11: AKA Applied Research, Section 11's mandate is to produce and deploy inventive non-conventional weaponry. It has a small military wing of around 20,000 troops, but manages to balance this out with extreme bio-modding and ludicrously over-the-top weapons cybernetics. Outdone in these respects only by Section 9, with which it has an excellent working relationship.

Section 00: Pretty much nothing's known about this one, except that it has incredible political pull and answers to only the two highest authorities in the government and, to a lesser extent, the Commander of the SSC. It is suspected that its ultimate purpose has little to do with general SSC policy and is instead related to a larger plan. Ultra-HFPEly, it's running that gamut of dubiously moral AI uplift programs and mind alteration research.

MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL DEVELOPMENT

Our ministry for colonization and exploration of space, and the administration of territories outside the Oort Cloud. With a broad range of authority and a population larger than that of some countries, it remains one of the largest and most independent forces in Venusian politics.

Due to the immense difficulties in governing and integrating colonies light-years away from the homeland, a new system has been created to deal with issues. Every colonized star system has a General Government responsible for governing and administrating it. All of the individual Governments are counted as independent regimes with a democratic structure. The Emperor of Venus controls all foreign policy decisions and is the Head of State, exerting nominal control over the bureaucracy.

List of Governments:

Eta Cassiopaie Republic:

Founded in 3960 during the Second Wave, the Eta Cassiopaie Republic is now one of the most prosperous of Venus' colonies. With almost thirty million colonists living on its surface, the ECR is mainly known for medium industrial production and mineral resources. However, it is also developing shipyards.

Sirius Republic:

The colony here has been incredibly successful due to the Earthlike nature of the settled planet. With a breathable atmosphere, fertile soil, and warmish temperatures, the first city, Zhu's Hope, holds over 3 million colonists. Prosperity and good luck are definitely the trend for the future of the Sirius Republic. The current population is around 50 million and still climbing due to large amounts of immigration from Venus. A self-regulating and fairly prosperous economy make the Sirius Republic a point of particular pride. Exports are mostly agricultural.

Santa Rosa

Santa Rosa, a near-Earth planet, was attacked during the mysterious Pirate Wars. Now, it has returned as the ORA's primary fleet anchor point. Forbidding military installations dot its surface. Santa Rosa is known for the antimatter mines operating around its nearby gas giant and its mining of rare radioactive ores. A business in salvaging parts from the hulks of downed ships also exists, spurring tech start-ups.

Lalande 21185 Republic:

The other Earthly planet settled in New Hope's Second Wave of colonization, the world known as Horizon is warm, sticky, and covered in relatively dense jungles. 20,000 people landed in the first wave, but by now with massive additional colonization and investment this population has climbed to almost 60 million. This is truly the jewel of Venusian extraplanetary expansion. Exports include rare xeno-woods, unusual elements, edible offworld plants, luxury goods, hand crafts, light industrial products, and starship parts.

Altaiir Republic:

While Lalande 21185 and the colony of Horizon have a bright long-term future, the colonial project centred around Altaiir is the first New Hope colony and holds a special place in the hearts of many. Altaiir's main planet, Esperance, has a population of around 1,300,000. It has a spacedock, and significant infrastructure built around grounded freighter spacecraft. There are fairly large operations in the system's outer debris field, and several of the dwarf planets in the far reaches of the system have been transformed into shipyards owned by Venus United Hulls, producing space vessels independently for the MED. It is, in fact, one of the largest producers of warp-capable civilian spacecraft in the galaxy and the home of VUH's exceptionally popular freighter series. Significant investments by the URMA don't hurt either. Overall, this system's prosperity is a major contributor to the nation.

Other Colonies

Not all worlds are cut out for full-on colonialization. Instead, many provide benefits without huge populations.

Van Maanen's Star

Polyphemus, the single blasted and radioactive world orbiting this star, is totally uninhabitable. However, this does not inherently stop profitable enterprise. Automated mining of its radioactive ores and heavy metals is already a decently-sized enterprise, and this Hellish world's satellite provides a useful and lucrative source of Helium-3.

Barnard's Star

Home to a gas giant and an Earthlike and habitable world full of alien life. This one has possibilities. A cloaked monitoring station has been set up in the system's outer edges, and the gas giant is being exploited for antimatter. Furthermore, it is a mecca for sociologists seeking to discover what all those aliens are doing.

Procyon:

Due to the lack of any actual planets, the Procyon colony is solely made up of Fedele Station, several decommissioned freighters in orbit around a gas giant which has been named Antaeus. For a long time, Procyon was deeply unprofitable. However, the antimatter stations deployed in the gas giant's upper atmosphere have become great sources of revenue. Asteroid mining in the belt also yields serious income, and its remoteness lends itself well to secretive military projects.

Defense Details:

Republic-level colonies are required to raise Colonial Militia, who serve as their main defense and security units. The ORA itself mainly maintains rapid reaction units, such as the Marines, and troops for smaller colonies, such as Advance Security Brigades. The ORA, along with the Navy, is also responsible for protecting the space around their colonies and do so with their growing fleet. Almost all the colonies have varying degrees of defensive infrastructure. All of them have Sky Hammer VIIs and Phoenix AA missiles to block landings, along with Reaper Defense Installations.

Cabinet Information Unit:

Although the SSC does control internal situational and social engineering, a medium is required which can straddle the interface between internal and foreign media, given that the latter is an area theoretically outside a Premier-directed SSC branch's authority. Therefore, the CIU was created. Answering to the President and to a lesser extent the Premier, the SIU is dedicated to the art of information manipulation and situational control, changing perceptions of outside events for inside audiences and inside events for outside audiences. In such a role, it has great power to censor, replay, or even edit inbound and outbound information. Its presence on the Internet is huge and shadowy, and rumors indicate that it has a cutoff switch for all official communications channels leading to offplanet sources. This rumor is, of course, considered fringe-y even among the fringe conspiracy theorists who even believe that offensive information warfare is its actual purpose at all.

Last edited by narwhalwarlord on 28 Mar 2016, 18:45, edited 27 times in total.